Secrets of Seduction (33 page)

She peered up at him. “You truly love me?”

“Truly.”

Raw emotion flooded her at the unguarded expression in his eyes. “Of
course
I will marry you.
Gladly
 …”

Pushing away from the wall, Skye launched herself at Hawk and threw her arms around his neck, catching him off guard and sending him stumbling backward. Laughing in delight, she began pressing enthusiastic kisses over his mouth and face.

When he righted his balance, Hawk returned her ardor, capturing her lips in a totally satisfying manner. When he finally drew back, Skye felt dazed and joyous.

“I gather this means you love me also,” Hawk murmured.

“Certainly I love you. There has never been any question. I have been in love with you since I was thirteen years old.”

“I am supremely honored, sweetheart. However …” Reaching up, he unwound her arms. “We need to discuss wedding plans—in fact, I have a special license
burning a hole in my coat pocket. But as loath as I am to postpone this delightful episode, I must deal with Farnwell first.”

Skye gave a small sigh of frustration but agreed that the baron took precedence. After his odious actions, he couldn’t go unpunished.

She willingly accompanied Hawk to the kitchens, where they found Farnwell sitting slumped on a bench in the servant’s dining room, staring at the floor, looking despondent and subdued.

“Pray excuse me a moment,” Hawk said to Skye.

Exhibiting a cool, calculated rage, he crossed the room in three strides, grabbed the baron by his coat lapels and hauled him upright, then whirled him around and let loose a punch to his stomach, then jaw.

In quick succession, Farnwell gave a yelp of fright and a grunt of pain, followed by a startled cry as he went flying. He landed heavily on his backside, where he curled into a ball and lay groaning with the wind knocked out of him.

To Skye’s mind, it was Hawk’s second wholly satisfying gesture in a matter of minutes.

“I warned you once, Farnwell,” Hawk ground out, flexing his fist as he moved to stand over the wheezing nobleman.

Still struggling to regain his breath, Farnwell started whimpering and covered his head with his arms, as if fearing another brutal blow.

Hawk gave a growl of disgust. “I should have done that the last time. Only a sniveling coward uses force against weaker beings. But since violence seems to be the only method of persuasion you understand, let me make myself clear. If I hear of you raising a hand to a
woman again, I won’t just knock your teeth down your throat, you won’t live to see another dawn.”

Stark silence followed his declaration, except for the baron’s mewling. Skye looked around her and found that an audience had crowded into the dining room, watching with varying degrees of satisfaction.

The servants were not overly shocked, considering the destruction that Farnwell had wrought. Not surprisingly, Isabella, Cornelius, and Rachel all looked as if they wholly approved of Hawk’s retribution. Rachel particularly. After abandoning her daughter all those years ago, she had been prepared to defend Daphne to the death during the fire, like a mother tiger with her cub. Even Daphne, who was Edgar’s closest family, appeared supportive.

“Do you comprehend me, Farnwell?” Hawk barked.

The baron cringed and nodded rather frantically.

Noting the audience, Hawk dismissed the servants, who backed away obediently and shut the door behind themselves.

“We need to settle this issue once and for all,” Hawk added, beckoning the other vested observers further into the room.

Daphne, Rachel, Cornelius, Isabella, and Skye gathered around the baron. Skye fully agreed with Hawk. Matters had finally come to a head, and they needed a long-overdue discussion of Farnwell’s violence and the disposition of his future relationship with Rachel.

Farnwell was not as eager, obviously.

Seeing her brother cowering on the floor, Daphne knelt beside him and put a gentle hand on his arm to help him up.

Farnwell sniffled and sat up gingerly, then winced at his split lower lip. “Oww! I am bleeding like a stuck pig.”

“You know you deserve much worse, Edgar,” Daphne said unsympathetically. “You will be fortunate if Lord Hawkhurst doesn’t bring criminal charges against you for arson or even attempted murder.”

“I told you a dozen times that I am dreadfully sorry.”

“That is not good enough. You owe his lordship an abject apology for nearly destroying his home.”

“Very well.” Wiping the blood from his mouth with his sleeve, Farnwell sent a contrite glance toward Hawk. “I hope you will accept my deepest apologies, my lord. Naturally I will pay for damages incurred to your home.”

“Yes, you will,” Hawk said curtly. “But I am more interested in how you intend to redeem yourself with your sister.”

“I realize I have a temper—” he began.

“A temper?” Cornelius burst out. “You nearly
killed
her.”

Skye had never seen her uncle so livid, but Farnwell seemed truly remorseful as he pleaded with his sister. “I pray you will forgive me, Daphne. I vow I never, ever meant to hurt you.”

“I suppose I believe you,” she replied, relenting a little. “But actions count more than intentions.”

“You know I have never done anything so heinous before.”

“I also know you had a terrible example in our father. But there is no excuse for your brutality.”

Farnwell grimaced. “What must I do to earn your forgiveness?”

Daphne needed no time to consider. “A little groveling toward Mrs. Donnelly would be appropriate. You should tell her how sorry you are for threatening her for refusing to leave the country.”

“Yes, of course.” Farnwell earnestly repeated his apology to Rachel.

“And you must swear to leave her alone and let her live her own life here in England without fear of reprisal.”

“Yes, I swear it.”

“Lord Farnwell,” Rachel said slowly, “I have a better idea. You will give Daphne half of your fortune.”

Farnwell stared at Rachel while Daphne raised an eyebrow. “I don’t need his fortune.”

“Perhaps not,” Rachel replied, “but you deserve it. It is only fair that he be made to share his wealth with you, since none of it belongs to him.”

“I would be happy if he will give up control of the settlement my father made me.”

Rachel pressed her lips together grimly. “That won’t do, my dear. There should be severe consequences for his violence. I was prepared to let Lord Farnwell keep his title and wealth, but I suspect draining his purse will hurt him more than any punishing blows.”

Daphne looked thoughtful. “It would be good to be independent and make my own financial decisions, without fear of being at the mercy of my brother’s whims.”

“I agree, you should have complete independence also.” Rachel gazed coolly down at the baron. “I promise you, I will never contest your legitimacy, Lord Farnwell. In exchange for my silence, you will
provide amply for Daphne. Allowing you to keep half is rather magnanimous. Without my restraint, you would be disgraced and penniless.”

Farnwell again snuck a glance at Hawk and apparently thought better of protesting Rachel’s harsh terms. “Yes, whatever you wish.”

Skye judged that Rachel was indeed being profoundly generous, considering that she could strip him of his entire inheritance and his very legitimacy. She doubted that Farnwell would go back on his word, knowing that Hawk would enforce their agreement. She also doubted he would be so foolish as to threaten Rachel or Daphne ever again under pain of incurring Hawk’s wrath.

With the terms decided, Hawk looked impatient, and Skye felt even more so. She badly wanted to return to the question of his marriage proposal, but for that they needed privacy.

Glancing at Hawk, she cleared her throat. “Now that this matter is settled, may I have a word with you, Hawk?”

Isabella caught the look they exchanged and sensed that something was in the air. “Yes, go, Skye, Hawk. We will supervise cleaning up the horrendous mess. We can cart away the burnt draperies and carpets tonight to diminish the stench. As soon as the rain stops, we can begin airing out the entire house. And tomorrow we will see what can be salvaged.”

Skye gave her aunt a grateful look. Picking up a lamp, she preceded Hawk from the servants’ dining room through the kitchens. The rain was still coming down in torrents as, careful of her bandaged hands, he took her elbow to guide her upstairs.

To her surprise, he chose the newly renovated master bedroom suite in the family wing. Oddly, the bedchamber looked inhabited. “I didn’t realize you had moved into this wing,” she observed.

“I began sleeping here last week before I left for London, to get away from the temptation you presented.”

The moment she set down the lamp, he pulled her into his arms. “I need to hold you,” he murmured into her hair.

Skye was wholly content to oblige. His warmth and hardness were
exactly
the comfort she needed.

They remained that way for some time, her breasts nestled against his chest, her thighs brushing his. When eventually he kissed her again, heat shimmered through her. She felt his fingertips brush her face, her throat, and she pressed closer, wanting the feel of his bare flesh, needing to touch him. Yearning swept over her, suffusing her body with liquid heaviness.…

Yet Hawk, evidently deciding it perhaps was not the time or place for passion, drew back.

“I suppose we cannot make love now,” she said with a wistful sigh.

Hawk brought the back of his hand softly down the side of her face. “Regrettably we will have to wait. I want complete privacy when I make love to you.”

Skye didn’t want to wait at all, yet this moment was hardly romantic, what with her burns and grime. The smell of smoke was less prominent here but still pervasive.

Hawk must have come to a similar conclusion, for he led her to the washstand, where he proceeded to gently clean her face of the soot smudges from the fire. “Aren’t
you fortunate? I am serving as your lady’s maid since you cannot manage on your own, given your bandages.”

Skye laughed. “I am in great need of a bath also. But Aunt Bella will help me wash my hair and change my gown.”

“Later. I’m not letting you out of my sight just now.”

Skye felt the same way. “I must look a fright.”

He curved his palm against her cheek. “Even scorched and bedraggled, you have never looked more beautiful to me. You are radiant.”

“If I am radiant, it is because you said you love me.”

“I do, very much.”

“And you truly want to marry me?”

“Truly. Tomorrow if I can arrange it.”

“So soon?”

“I see no reason to wait, do you?”

Skye couldn’t help a small smile. The minor fact that his house had nearly burned down was perhaps a good reason to delay, but she was reassured by his eagerness. “We ought to discuss the particulars, shouldn’t we?”

“Yes, I intend to.”

When he had washed his own face and hands, he led her to the adjacent sitting room, where he drew her down to sit beside him on the chintz sofa, blatantly disregarding how their smoke-stained clothes might soil the fabric.

Skye didn’t care, either, not when Hawk’s arm went around her shoulders and tucked her against his body, her head on his shoulder. It was darker here, with only light from the lamp in the bedchamber streaming
through the door, and rather chilly with no fire in the hearth, but still strangely cozy with the steady drum of the rain on the windows and the steadier beat of Hawk’s heart beneath her cheek.

When she felt a shudder run through him, she suspected he was thinking about the events just past. She raised the back of his hand to her lips and tenderly kissed his burn scars.

“I am sorry you had to relive that terrible time,” Skye said quietly.

“As am I.” His arm tightened about her. “The terror I felt …”

“I felt the same terror.” She could hear emotion vibrating in her own voice. “I was never so glad to see anyone in my life.”

“Because you needed help battling the fire?”

“No, not only that.”

“You were managing well enough on your own. You didn’t need me.”

Skye gave a muffled laugh at that untruth. “Of course I needed you. I will always need you—rather desperately.”

He kissed the crown of her head. “I am an incredibly lucky man.”

She lifted her head from his shoulder. The dim lamplight flared against Hawk’s molded cheekbones and provided enough illumination for her to see that his beautiful face held unmistakable tenderness.

“Tell me again, Hawk.”

He seemed to realize what she wanted to hear. “I love you dearly, my darling Skye. And I want us to be married as soon as possible.”

She hesitated. “Would you mind very much if we held the ceremony at Tallis Court?”

“Your home? The Traherne family seat?”

“Yes. I would like all my family in attendance and our vicar to marry us.”

When Hawk drew her close again, Skye expounded. “It would mean delaying for a sennight or more, but it may take me that long to locate my brother. Quinn claims his attention is fixed on his latest invention to revolutionize sailing ships, but I suspect he has kept away to avoid becoming Kate’s next matchmaking victim. The wedding of his only sister should draw him out of hiding, though.”

She heard the smile in Hawk’s voice. “Your brother is in hiding to avoid your cousin’s matchmaking?”

“I suspect so. Quinn thinks her legendary lovers theory is ludicrous and wants no part of it. I believe his man of business knows where he is, but I need time to run him to ground—and to send out the other invitations. Moreover, the guest list will be rather long. Despite the refurbishments that have been completed, there likely won’t be enough habitable bedchambers to accommodate them all here.”

“How many guests do you have in mind?”

“Well, Kate, of course, and Ash and Jack and their new wives. You know both my cousins, but you haven’t met Maura and Sophie. And then there is Aunt Bella and Uncle Cornelius and Rachel and Daphne.…”

“I see your point,” Hawk said wryly. “As long as we are having a large wedding then, I would like Sir Gawain and several of my other colleagues and close friends to be present—at least the ones who are already here in England.”